Pau Gasol & the future of the Raptors

Barring any unforeseen injuries I believe the Raptors are in no mans land. Just good enough to not be bad.

I believe MU is trying to get a feel for the roster, see where the level of play is at, and try to compete without mortgaging the future. We don't have ANY cap space for the next two years. Why not try and bring in Pau Gasol (who is on a similar contract as Gay) and compete now? Our only hole is a NBA-starting-caliber power forward. What do you think it would take for the Lakers to trade him? Make a two year run to show the NBA that Toronto can assemble a good team. If all fails and this team chemistry doesn't work...well we have hope in those two juicy 20 mil expiring contracts...

they just tried to get Barnes or klay thompson for a simple sign & trade, they just lost dwight howard, they wont trade us pau for anything less than Valanciunas and something else which makes the deal completly useless

If we could do Fields + Camby + Novak, or something like that, yeah I'd go for it, but I don't see any reason LA takes on our less desirable contracts for an all-star on an expiring. They probably aren't interested in DeRozan or Lowry because those are the two positions they're set, so either Gay or JV probably need to be the anchor piece in any trade.
I definitely wouldn't give up JV, and I still think they can do a lot better in a return for Gay than simply expiring contracts. There needs to be a good prospect or pick, which obviously LA doesn't have.

they just tried to get Barnes or klay thompson for a simple sign & trade, they just lost dwight howard, they wont trade us pau for anything less than Valanciunas and something else which makes the deal completly useless

Why does everyone always think that we have to offer our best asset just to get another team interested in doing deals?? Common now, give your team a little bit of credit. JV is not our only asset. And teams have accepted far worse deals than the contract of Gay, Fields and Derozan. Lowry and Amir are valuable assets as well. Its not always like, oh, the Raptors always have to overcompensate to get deals done.

Lakers didnt try to get Barnes or Thompson, GSW was rumored to be readying to offer one of those two with Bogut incase Howard wanted to sign with them. Lakers already said they are not interested in doing any s&t for Howard.

Lakers wont trade Pau period. He's an expiring. They want as much cap space next season when the Big 3 become available.

Why does everyone always think that we have to offer our best asset just to get another team interested in doing deals?? Common now, give your team a little bit of credit. JV is not our only asset. And teams have accepted far worse deals than the contract of Gay, Fields and Derozan. Lowry and Amir are valuable assets as well. Its not always like, oh, the Raptors always have to overcompensate to get deals done.

Lakers didnt try to get Barnes or Thompson, GSW was rumored to be readying to offer one of those two with Bogut incase Howard wanted to sign with them. Lakers already said they are not interested in doing any s&t for Howard.

Lakers wont trade Pau period. He's an expiring. They want as much cap space next season when the Big 3 become available.

Didn't say raptors would do this deal, i said that's what the lakers would ask.
And they changed their stance on no sign & trade the last two days, and that's what they were looking to get, which made dwight choose houston because GS would be too complicated.

And we're not talking any team, its the Lakers, their 1 billion dollard TV deal forces them to always try for the homerun, Pau is kobe's only friend and their starting center, they have to stay respectable they are not giving him up for half a season of lowry when they have steve nash, Kobe is not retiring so no need for derozan and his new extension, fields......in what world is he an asset right now ? Gay for Pau what's the point for either team ? Why get rid of amir for 1 season of pau gasol ? and we would have to send 19 million of salary to make the deal work.

I don't understand what incentive the Lakers have to be a competitive team next year. They just don't have the talent to compete in the west right now, and Kobe will likely be out for half the year minimum.

If I was running the show I would amnesty Kobe, tank the season, draft really well, then resign Kobe (I believe you have to wait a year before being able to reacquire an amnestied player) to a more manageable salary + go after a star in the great free agent class.

I think Pau could bring some strong leadership to our team, and would coexist beautifully next to V. I suppose they would want a dollar for him though

I don't understand what incentive the Lakers have to be a competitive team next year. They just don't have the talent to compete in the west right now, and Kobe will likely be out for half the year minimum.

If I was running the show I would amnesty Kobe, tank the season, draft really well, then resign Kobe (I believe you have to wait a year before being able to reacquire an amnestied player) to a more manageable salary + go after a star in the great free agent class.

I think Pau could bring some strong leadership to our team, and would coexist beautifully next to V. I suppose they would want a dollar for him though

the incentive is they are getting paid a billion dollard, that's right a billion dollards to put a quality product on the floor.
Kobe doesn't want to be amniestied because he thinks he can come back on day 1, and you cant amnesty kobe if he's not cool with it, he's the face of the franchise, and if you amnesty him, the bobcats can claim him for a year or any team with cap space.

Tanking does not exist in laker vocabulary, they will resign kobe to a more manageable contract, after next season, all the top free agents are gone no point now, they will have the cap space already for a big name next summer, so you want the lakers to put a crappy product on the floor for a draft pick ?

And what do you propose would be a fair trade for pau gasol ? who do we send them for 19 million dollars ? and what would our team look like after you send that package ?

Forget Pau it doesn't make sense for either team anymore, last season was different, move on.

I'm thinking we may have to come to terms that the Raptors will be in no man's land for the next year, as Ujiri evaluates (similar to Dwayne Casey's first year, evaluating prospects).
Ujiri likely wants to be in the 12-18 pick range next year, where there are plenty of promising prospects. Agree with LBF, Gasol not worth giving up assets for at this point. Roll with what we have, hopefully grab a 6-8 spot in the playoffs and wait for Ujiri's big move in summer 2014.